Only two reviews this week, but under orders from Her Majesty, there must be a contest to see which one is the best. This sounds very familiar to me, having to read two reviews and pick the best one (and then having to read another 22 reviews and picking the best one in each pair). So I figured I'd do this in the old Team Tournament judging style, where I'll look at the things that impressed me with each review, and the things that need some working on. Then I'll fire some random synapses and pick a winner.

Joe, our rising star, is up against EmP, our already risen star. I have to say that in the last couple of months, Joe's writing has gotten exponentially better, especially now that he's slowing down to one a week or so, rather than the 5 or 6 I used to see by him in any given week. It's good to see someone improve. EmP's review is very professional, and strangely devoid of the usual grammatical goofs that plague his reviews. It's a professionalism that takes several years to achieve, but perhaps Joe will get there in another few months going by the rate of how much better each new review from him is. So, the newbie vs the veteran. David and Goliath. Joe vs EmP.

What Joe does very well is draw me into the game he's reviewing. An arcade submarine shooter, something I would never play, but I can imagine what it's like... and I agree with the complaints about the title despite not having had an opinion at all on the game before I clicked the review. Persuasive writing is good. I was interested to see what was good about this game as well as what wasn't so good. Getting me interested in a game I'm not interested in is one of the hardest things you'll ever have to do around here, Joe. There are a few grammatical issues in the review - just sentences that don't quite read right. You'll probably pick 'em up on a re-read, but if you want me to highlight them for you, just ask me.

That did detract slightly from the polish of the review, of which EmP beat you there (and that's quite a feat for him). But Joe, don't be disheartened. That guy employs a full time editor simply to reach the requirements of a staff review. EmP's review is shorter, but it talks about an uninteresting XBLA Indie game, one of those dime a dozen types by the look of it. And it doesn't get any more interesting. EmP pulls it apart quite well, and it is a worthy staff review.

You know what? Both these reviews are very good in their own way, so I'm going to go for which one impressed me the most, and that's JoeTheDestroyer.